Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
1 Samuel 6:20 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 20. 20And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? and to whom shall he go up from us?
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Voices the community's fearful question about standing before the holy God.
Read It With
- 1 Samuel 6:19–6:21
The line at 1 Samuel 6:20 voices the community's fearful question about standing before the holy God. Its place in 1 Samuel 6:19–6:21 matters because A disputed number of Beth-shemesh residents die after an offense involving the ark; lament and fear prompt a request that Kiriath-jearim take it.
Follow the Context
- Opening movement: A disputed number of Beth-shemesh residents die after an offense involving the ark.
- Developing movement or outcome: lament and fear prompt a request that Kiriath-jearim take it.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
First Samuel 6:20 does not stand alone from 1 Samuel 6:19–6:21: it voices the community's fearful question about standing before the holy God. The deaths do not authorize lethal control by religious leaders, mock questions about holiness, or permit certainty about the KJV's disputed number and exact offense.
What Remains True
Voices the community's fearful question about standing before the holy God. Within 1 Samuel 6:19–6:21, this contribution supports the unit's enduring claim: The durable responsibility is to protect people from detached uses of this scene while retaining its warranted claim: A disputed number of Beth-shemesh residents die after an offense involving the ark; lament and fear prompt a request that Kiriath-jearim take it.
How It Can Shape Life
- Voices the community's fearful question about standing before the holy God. The proportionate response is therefore the one traced from the complete unit: Meet grief like the pain visible in “Lethal holiness leaves Beth-shemesh afraid” with patient listening, practical care, truthful prayer, and access to appropriate support; do not promise the same outcome or explain suffering by blame. The deaths do not authorize lethal control by religious leaders, mock questions about holiness, or permit certainty about the KJV's disputed number and exact offense.
Teach It Back
Explain 1 Samuel 6:20's precise role in 1 Samuel 6:19–6:21. Include the first historical horizon, material uncertainty, one person or cost a leader-centered reading could obscure, and one conclusion this verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 1 Samuel 6:19–6:21 — Lethal holiness leaves Beth-shemesh afraidSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
MT, Septuagint, Josephus, and other witnesses differ sharply over the number and wording in verse 19; the textual problem must remain explicit rather than harmonized.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: 1 Samuel 6:19–6:21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 1 Samuel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology, with the two KJV-Hebrew versification shifts stated rather than silently offset.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/1Sam.xml, OSIS 6:19–6:21; KJV 20:42 spans Hebrew 20:42–21:1, KJV 21:1–15 maps to Hebrew 21:2–16, KJV 23:29 maps to Hebrew 24:1, and KJV 24:1–22 maps to Hebrew 24:2–23
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: 1 Samuel
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Only the translator notes actually printed for these verses, used for lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, and older-English controls.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Notes, 1 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 504–543, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 6:19–6:21
Open source ↗peer reviewed scholarly article
The Textual Affiliations of 4QSama
Emanuel Tov
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 14, 1979
Supports: Material Qumran-Samuel evidence and witness relationships, not a complete apparatus or automatic preference for one text.
Exact location: Tov, 'The Textual Affiliations of 4QSama,' JSOT 14 (1979), pp. 37–53, with 4QSama readings checked only where a unit names them
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
The Book of Samuel: Its Composition, Structure and Significance as a Historiographical Source
Moshe Garsiel
The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10.5, 2010
Supports: One relatively early integrated/two-edition account of composition, structure, and historiographic value, retained as a contested model.
Exact location: Garsiel, JHS 10.5 (2010), pp. 1–42, named structural or composition discussion covering the movement that includes 1 Samuel 6:19–6:21
Open source ↗scholarly monograph frontmatter and table of contents
The Theology of the Book of Samuel
John Goldingay
Cambridge University Press, 2024
Supports: Only the publisher-visible book architecture and theological scope; the paywalled body is not treated as inspected.
Exact location: Goldingay, The Theology of the Book of Samuel (2024), official frontmatter and TOC: 1 Samuel 4:1b–12:25, pp. 50–76
Open source ↗